QUALITY OF SERVICE DEFINED

Quality of Service is tricky to measure because numerous interconnected networks comprise the Internet. Problems can range from a bad cable to a backbone router failure 6,000 miles away.

The Internet is a collection of networks exchanging information at common gateways. For example, traffic originating in Vancouver may route through Seattle, Chicago or New York before reaching another Vancouver site.

Information moves through the Internet in “packets”. The quality of a connection depends on the number and success of routers handling packets.

MEASURING QUALITY OF SERVICE

Try these simple procedures to measure the Quality of Service provided by Skyway West and our suppliers.

 

 

Trouble Connecting?	Test Software
Are you having trouble connecting to Internet sites? Is your email getting hung up? Are you receiving error messages like “DNS entry missing” or “Server unavailable or not responding”? We can help you isolate the source of the problem.	Two well know performance tools are “ping” and “traceroute”. Both send out packets and measure the performance of those packets over the network. You can target either a DNS name (like mail.yourcompany.com) or a raw IP address like (209.17.143.11).
Windows 95 & NT machines can use both tools from the DOS prompt by typing “ping” or “tracert” followed by the IP address you wish to ping or trace. (e.g., ping 209.17.143.11 ). You can also find more robust software from http://tucows.connect.ab.ca/.
MAC users who are running open transport should download the freeware equivalent of Traceroute, WhatRoute from http://crash.ihug.co.nz/~bryanc/.
A word of advice – “ping” and “traceroute” use network bandwidth so should not be left running. Use in moderation when necessary.
Also, users behind a firewall can not use “ping” or “traceroute” since you are using ICMP rather than TCP or UDP.
Are you having trouble connecting? Let’s PING
A ping measures the time it takes (in milliseconds) a packet to reach another IP address and return. It also identifies packet loss and confirms if an Internet application reached its destination.	Your computer will show the pings as they are sent and when they return. It may take from 2 to 8 pings before one returns depending on your router and other equipment throughout the Internet.
First Ping your router Let’s ensure your LAN is working properly. Ping your router – it is the IP address identified in your client software as the gateway address. It is within the same IP block as the address assigned to your workstation. Check your LAN cabling and workstation configuration if you cannot Ping your router.
Second Ping Skyway West – 209.17.143.10 Call us immediately @ 604-482-1212 if you cannot Ping Skyway West.
Third Ping the address you are trying to reach. If you are unable to Ping your destination we can use Traceroute or WhatRoute to help locate the problem.
Where is the problem? Let’s Traceroute
If you are unable to Ping your Internet destination then Traceroute can identify the actual path packets take through each Internet router to the end destination. It also measures the round-trip time from your workstation to your destination thus enabling you to find slow links.	ADSL, Fixed Wireless, T1 and Fibre connections are always on. A typical ADSL connection takes 15 to 30 milliseconds to travel from a customer site to Skyway’s distribution router, or 30 to 60 ms between two Skyway ADSL sites. The example below shows 165 ms from Australia to Skyway’s web site. A delay of 300 ms is considered slow.
Below is the path packets take from Australia (.au) to www.skywaywest.com. The numbers on the left side specify the hop number. This is followed by a host name and a host address. Finally, there are three times listed for each hop. These are the round-trip times for the three packets sent out.
Stars (*****) on the left of the list indicate unnamed gateways. If the last name in the list is different than the one you typed in, the name you typed is an alias for the final destination. Gaps of information where the times are displayed indicate where packets are being lost. Times will be replaced by something like a star (*). One gap within one hop does not indicate a problem. Look for three missing times in one or more hops to determine the last link successfully reached. Remember, the routes are dynamically assigned so constantly change according to specific algorithms.
traceroute to www.skywaywest.com (216.251.128.45), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets 1 nswrno2-eth2-0-ultimo.nswrno.net.au (203.15.123.113) 0.452 ms 0.344 ms 0.331 ms 2 203.15.123.177 (203.15.123.177) 15.039 ms 14.74 ms 0.404 ms 3 ge-1-0-3.bb1.a.syd.aarnet.net.au (202.158.202.1) 0.42 ms 0.47 ms 0.457 ms 4 so-2-1-1.bb1.a.pao.aarnet.net.au (202.158.194.150) 155.721 ms 155.751 ms 155.818 ms 5 GE5-0-PEERA-STTLWA.IP.GROUPTELECOM.NET (198.32.176.22) 156.276 ms 156.304 ms 156.326 ms 6 POS4-0.PEERA-STTLWA.IP.GROUPTELECOM.NET (66.59.190.153) 161.407 ms 161.386 ms 161.591 ms 7 POS7-0.WANA-VANCBC.IP.GROUPTELECOM.NET (66.59.190.45) 165.133 ms 164.979 ms 165.331 ms 8 66.38.255.2 (66.38.255.2) 165.024 ms 165.239 ms 165.065 ms 9 216.18.28.29 (216.18.28.29) 165.781 ms 165.512 ms 165.82 ms 10 static-209-139-197-189.gtcust.grouptelecom.net (209.139.197.189) 165.528 ms 165.467 ms 165.69 ms 11 www.skywaywest.com (216.251.128.45) 165.28 ms 165.25 ms 165.686 ms